In hingedly supported vehicle doors, such as the rear door of a van, it is common to provide a door check that will maintain the door at a hold open position of approximately 90 degrees. It is desirable that the door check provide a positive stop at the hold open position, that is, to assure that the door check blockingly engages a stop member of some sort to maintain the door at the hold open position. It is also desirable, however, to be able to move the door farther to a fully open position beyond the hold open position, clear of a wide item to be loaded.
Door checks that provide a positive stop are known. An example may be seen in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,779,050 to Semar. As disclosed there, a check strap 26 pivoted to a body structure 10 has a hooked portion 30 that blockingly engages a stop pin 42 on the vehicle door 11. That blocking engagement maintains the door positively at a hold open position, but there is no means provided to allow the check strap 26 to be disengaged so that the door 11 may be fully opened. Disengageable door checks are known. A disengageable door check may be seen in FIGS. 5 and 6. A door check designated generally at A is used with a swingable door B, such as the rear door of a van vehicle C. FIG. 6 shows the relative position of a stop member D to door check A when door B is in an intermediate hold open position. Stop member D, a pin, is releaseably held in a resilient detent E. Door check A may be easily disengaged simply by moving door B to the fully open position, which moves pin D out of detent E to the dotted line position. However, it will be readily understood that pin D is not positively stopped at the hold open position. Door B would be maintained in the hold open position only in proportion to the strength of detent E.